Uses and Applications of 35mm Lenses

Fisheye: No known uses, except to illustrate fisheye effects in photo how-to books.

Ultra-wide rectilinears wider than 19mm: Occasional interiors. Also used to stump gearheads trying to
find stuff to photograph with the things.

Ultra-wide-angle (19, 20, 21, or 24mm): One of the four of five essential lenses for pros, broadly useful
for artists and accomplished amateurs. Used for landscapes, interiors, street shooting, crowd shots, etc.
Also used by bored amateurs as the next thing to covet for purchase. Despite the ubiquity of this focal
length, relatively few photographers are practiced enough or visually acute enough to use this type of lens
effectively; lots more people own these than do good work with them. See Brian Bowers’ Leica books
for a rare example of a scenic photographer who actually sees well with a 21mm.

Ultra-wide-angle zoom (wide end 20mm or wider): useful for when the photographer would like to carry
one heavy lens instead of three light ones, or has a breezy, devil-may-care attitude towards flare effects.
Secondary “CYA” lens for pros who aren’t great with wide angles in the first place. (Exceptions do
exist.) Also sometimes paired with a fast 80-200mm zoom as a professional’s only two lenses.

Wide angles: Now that 24mm is more often lumped with 20mm and 35mm has become an alternative
“normal” focal length, this class has contracted down to one fixed focal length, 28mm. Useful as a
do-anything lens (especially for street and art photography, photojournalism, faux photojournalism, and
environmental portraits) where a wide “look” is desired, and/or to complement a 50mm main lens, and/or
for pressing into service in place of a super-wide when the photographer does not own same.

Shift lenses: Buildings. Used for the overcorrection of convergence caused by perspective.

Ditto, but with tilt: Ditto above, plus landscapes with tons of foreground and tables laden with food.

All-purpose 28-200mm zoom lenses: Bad snapshots. Also great for making five rolls of film last a whole
year. All-purpose = no purpose.

“Pancake” Tessar-types, usually 45mm: Good for lightening the burden of photographers who would
rather not carry an SLR at all.

Normal/standard (50mm): Useful for taking photographs, if you have a thick skin. When used exclusively,
classic “hair shirt” lens for disciplining oneself needlessly. Strangely, when in skilled hands, can mimic
moderate wide angles as well as short telephotos. According to one far Eastern expert, lower yield of
usable shots than 35mm lens, but higher yield of great shots. Second best focal length for a Leica.

Standard 55–58mm: Shows you use a really, really old camera.

Macros/micros: Flowers, bugs, eyeballs, eyelashes, small products, tchotchkes. Dew-covered spider
webs, frost patterns on windowpanes. Great hobby lenses, as macro photographers are among the only
happy photo enthusiasts. Also much utilized by photography buffs who like to test lenses.

Superfast normals (ƒ/1, ƒ/1.2): Used for people who like limited depth of field, as well as for people who
like to complain about limited depth of field. Also, especially when aspherical elements are involved, an
effective way to vaporize excess cash for almost no good reason.

Fast medium zooms: For pros, bread-and-butter lenses. For amateurs, often left at home rather than
lugged around all day. If very expensive, big, and heavy, may be almost as good and almost as fast at any
given focal length as cheap fixed primes. Good for making both hobbyists and their portrait subjects feel
self-conscious.

Short teles (75, 77, 80, 85, 90, 100, or 105mm): Portraits, tight landscapes, headshots, beauty and
glamor. In skilled hands, can be used for general and art photography, photojournalism. Essential.

135mm prime: Little owned, less used. Became a standard 35mm focal length when rangefinders were the
main camera type because it’s the longest focal length that is feasible on a rangefinder. Now vestigial, like
a male’s nipples.

Fast 180mm or 200mm prime: Longest general use lens for photojournalism. Sports, beauty, auto races,
surveillance in film noire.

Slow 180mm or 200mm prime: Lightweight and easy to carry. May project a certain “image,” i.e. that
you are poor or cheap.

Standard telephoto zoom (70 or 80 to 180, 200, or 210): Whether slow or fast, indispensable for most
photographers, amateur or pro. Used for all kinds of action, activity, fashion, portrait, headshot,
reportage, sports, wildlife, landscape, and nature photography. Covers all the telephoto range most
photographers ever need, at least until they become afflicted by the terrible urge to photograph birds.

IS (Canon) or VR (Nikon) standard telephoto zoom: Same as above, but for photographers who drink
lotsa coffee and/or do crank.

Super-telephoto zooms (to 300mm or more on long end): For adjusting FOV when standpoint is
constrained. Replaces several heavy primes. Sometimes pressed into service by amateurs who have burr
up ass about having all focal lengths “covered.”

400mm: Critters, sports, and birds. Landscapes, if you’re a nut. Also good for photographing football
games when you don’t want the picture to show a dang thing about what’s going on.

500mm: Critters and birds. Money laundering: can be bought and sold to placate wife about questionable
expenses. “But I sold one of my lenses to pay for it, honey, honest.”

"Uses and Application of 35mm Lenses" is taken from Issue #7 of The 37th Frame,
which I hope to send in early September. There are two companion articles,
"Choosing Lenses: What's Seeing Got to Do with It?" and "Why a 35mm is the Best Lens for a
Leica." The Issue also contains a number of lens reviews, plus a long article about the
new Leica 50mm Summilux ASPH. To subscribe, go to www.37thframe.com.

If you're already a subscriber and haven't gotten Issue #6 yet, please don't despair —
I'm making steady progress in contacting people and setting up accounts. If you do
not receive an e-mail from me, you will receive a letter. Thanks for being patient!

Mike Johnston writes and publishes an old-fashioned, entertaining quarterly
ink-on-paper newsletter called The 37th Frame (
www.37thframe.com). He has a
B.F.A. in Photography from the Corcoran College of Art and Design in
Washington, D.C., where he was a student of the late Steve Szabo and of Joe
Cameron.

He was East Coast Editor of Camera & Darkroommagazine from 1988 to 1994 and
Editor-in-Chief of PHOTO Techniques magazine from 1994-2000, where his
editorial column "The 37th Frame" was a popular feature and where he
presented, among other things, a set of three articles on "bokeh" by John
Kennerdell, Oren Grad, and Harold Merklinger that were subsequently widely
discussed among photographers.

His critical and technical writings have appeared in various publications
and newsletters such as The Washington Review and D-Max. A number of his
articles written under the pseudonym "L. T. Gray" (el Tigre) appeared in the
English magazine Darkroom User.